


silences, heard and unheard

by Rethira



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 14:39:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/967128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyon dies.</p>
<p>He wakes up a brief time later, in a field shortly outside Darkling Woods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	silences, heard and unheard

**Author's Note:**

> for raphiael, for the prompt "Lyon is revived ala Robin in FE13"

There are consequences.

~

Lyon reappears in a field just outside Darkling Woods; he’s confused and scared, and the Demon King’s voice is silenced in his head. After a time, an army leaves the woods. At its helm, Ephraim and Eirika ride solemnly.

It’s not them who sees him, but a man just behind them, Lyon can’t recall his name - he fires a shot and it embeds in Lyon’s shoulder. He hits the ground just as warning cries flare up from the army, and minutes later there’s the ragged thunder of hooves crossing the ground towards him.

Lyon clutches his shoulder, cries. It hurts. Everything hurts. It’s too bright, too quiet. His body feels not his own.

And then there’s Ephraim, dismounting and striding towards him - “Lyon,” Ephraim breathes, “Lyon you’re _alive_.”

He reaches Lyon and enfolds him in a hug; the arrow catches on Ephraim’s armour and Lyon cries out at the pain. Ephraim immediately steps back, turns and starts shouting at Innes. Eirika calls for a healer - Lyon’s led to the waiting army. There’s shouting and noise and it’s _too much too much too much_.

When he wakes up, he’s in a bed with soft, clean sheets. The arrow in his shoulder is gone, and the wound bandaged. Ephraim’s sitting in a chair beside him, and when Lyon wakes he’s instantly embraced again.

"Are you all right? No that’s a stupid question, of course you’re not," Ephraim says - he’s too loud. Lyon shakes. Ephraim’s hand on his feels like burning, but Lyon can’t snatch his hand away.

"Tell me what happened," Ephraim entreats, but Lyon has no answers for him.

"I died," he says, slowly. "I died and then I was in the field and someone shot me."

Ephraim frowns and mutters, “Innes. I spoke to him.” He smiles. “But you’re okay now. You’re going to be fine. We’re riding back to Renais soon, and then we can take you back to Grado.”

Ephraim doesn’t hear Lyon whisper, “No.”

~

Lyon is crowned Emperor of Grado - his first act is to raid his coffers and use the money to send food and other supplies to the lands he ruined. The vast swathes of Grado he ran dry. There are reparations to be paid as well, mostly to Renais, although Ephraim says he’d happily waive all of them if it were up to him. Renais was never rich, but Ephraim doesn’t seem to care.

Grado _was_ a rich country once, but thieves have been in and out of the court as they please, and the nobility have locked up their money in their own lands - there’s only so much Lyon can do.

There’s only so much the people will let him do.

He sends Cormag and Duessel out to oversee repairs, but that leaves him only Knoll as a loyal aide. Grado’s court is full of vipers. They see a weak, pathetic Emperor on the throne, and worse, they see the man responsible for the current state of affairs.

Grado can’t afford a civil war, and yet Lyon can see one coming, even if Ephraim can’t. Sometimes Lyon thinks Ephraim is his only saving grace. The people may not care for Ephraim himself, but he is the King of Renais now, and it’s common knowledge that he cares a great deal for Lyon.

_Smitten_ , Lyon’s court says. They think vile things of Ephraim, worse than anything the Demon King said; they call Lyon a whore when they think he can’t hear. _The Emperor kneels for a King_ , they say, with knowing smiles.

Ephraim doesn’t hear them.

~

The earthquake comes, and if anything good can be said to come of it, it at least silences those who desire a civil war.

Frelia sends pegasus knights to help search for survivors, but that is all they send. Jehanna offers only her mercenaries; they raise their prices because of the danger. Rausten sends healers, but far too few. Carcino renegotiates trade agreements. Invariably, Grado ends with a worse deal than Carcino, but they need supplies. They need food and clothing, they need water, they need raw materials - and their coffers empty.

Renais sends healers. Renais sends money. Renais sends food, water, clothes, material. Renais sends knight platoons to search the outlying regions, to scan the deepest lines of the fault. Renais organises rescue parties, refugee shelters - Renais welcomes those who would flee Grado with open arms.

When Lyon signs off on another request for aid, he notices how pale his skin is. How his thin fingers shake when he grips the pen. He wonders when he last stood under the sun. How long since he felt a breeze on his face. How long since he felt _well_ in his own body.

At night Lyon shudders in his bed and make-believes the Demon King’s voice in his head.

Ephraim hears the pleas of Grado, but is still deaf to Lyon’s.

~

It takes years before Grado is stable again.

Lyon hasn’t left Grado in all that time. His mind is wholly his own, still quiet with his own thoughts, and when he thinks of Ephraim his heart still beats faster. The scar on his shoulder pulls when he moves. His skin is so white he can see his veins, can see his blood rushing blue through his body, though it comes out thick and crimson when he’s cut. His fingers shake when he holds a tome, and his eyes mist. He can say the words, call the spell, but it’s a pitiful spell he casts. When he walks, it’s painfully slow.

The Demon King laughs at him. Always he laughs, though his voice is _gone gone gone_.

Lyon abdicates with little fanfare, cites his failing health as the reason why, and allows Knoll to take him to Renais. He does not tell Duessel or Cormag where he is going, and they do not ask.

Ephraim is horrified, angry, desperate. “They forced you to leave!” he shouts, and Lyon wonders where the Ephraim he once knew left to. Perhaps he can join him there, in the beautiful garden of their youth.

" _He_ told you the truth, all those years ago," Lyon comments. "I do love you Ephraim." He takes Ephraim’s hands, lets Ephraim kiss him - Ephraim’s _wanted_ , he says, _wanted_ for so long. He doesn’t question. He kisses and kisses and murmurs _oh I wanted_ against Lyon’s lips.

Ephraim takes him to bed and doesn’t comment on the thinness of Lyon’s chest, the hollows over his hips. The translucency of Lyon’s skin. He calls Lyon beautiful; does he see through childhood’s eyes still? How nice for him.

When he’s finished, spent, lying beautiful and warm beside Lyon, Lyon turns and whispers into Ephraim’s ear, “But oh, how I _hate_ you too.”

If Ephraim hears, if Ephraim understands, he doesn’t say, and Lyon doesn’t stay long enough to find out.

He and Knoll disappear into the rolling fog of Renais’ mountains, and they are never seen again.


End file.
